IPL Watch & Car: cricket for the wrist and the dashboard
An IPL app extended to two platforms where the phone’s design rules break: a wrist you glance at, and a dashboard you mustn’t stare at. Most of the work was deciding what to leave out.
2platform-native prototypes, each made simpler by testing
D / Ptwo car modes, following the gear selector rather than a setting
Role
Product designer
Team
Solo
Timeline
One semester
Context
Concept project
I extended an IPL cricket app to two platforms where the phone’s design rules break: a wrist you glance at, and a dashboard you mustn’t stare at. Most of the work was deciding what to leave out, and testing pushed both designs further in that direction.
In short
Problem
IPL fans follow matches while working and driving, but the phone app needs both hands and full attention.
Opportunity
The watch and the car each have hardware the phone doesn’t: haptics and a crown on the wrist, voice and steering-wheel buttons in the car. Designing around that hardware lets fans follow a match without looking.
What I did
Designed a smartwatch app and a car infotainment experience, each built around its device’s hardware, and prioritised features per platform with MoSCoW.
Outcome
Two hi-fi Figma prototypes. Testing removed something from each, and both got simpler.
Proudest decision
Two car modes. While driving, the app gives key events only. Full commentary and tables appear only when the car is parked.
01 / Context and constraints
Seconds of attention, and eyes that belong on the road.
I designed for two people:
The die-hard fan wants every key moment in real time but has a busy schedule and multitasks constantly.
The on-the-go professional follows matches while driving and wants passive, hands-free updates: alerts and audio.
The constraints were the platforms themselves:
Watch: a tiny screen, seconds of attention, no keyboard.
Car: the driver’s eyes belong on the road. Anything that invites reading or tapping while moving is a safety problem, not just a usability one. I followed the same principle as in-car platform guidelines: glanceable, voice-first, and no browsing while moving.
What each platform gets, and what it never gets
Priority
Watch
Car
Must have
Mini scorecard, haptic alerts for key events, match schedule
Driving and parked modes, voice queries, dashboard score widget
Should have
Detailed scoreboard, points table
Audio score on the steering-wheel button, alert frequency settings
Could have
Trivia during breaks, team watch faces
Ambient lighting in team colours
Won’t have
Commentary, video
Video, ball-by-ball updates, any input beyond voice and basic controls
Features prioritised per platform with MoSCoW.
02 / Key design decisions
Three decisions, all of them subtractions.
01
Watch: glance first, detail on request
Context
A score check on the wrist lasts seconds.
Options
A — mirror the phone’s scorecard
B — a mini scorecard showing runs, wickets and overs, with the full scoreboard one double-tap away
Choice
B.
Why
Three numbers answer “how’s it going?” Everything else waits until the fan has more time.
Trade-off
Detail sits behind a gesture, and gestures are harder to discover than buttons. A “double-tap for full score” hint sits under the mini scorecard until the fan has used it.
02
Watch: let the wrist tell you, not the screen
Context
Fans don’t want to keep checking their watch.
Options
A — a text notification for every update
B — haptic alerts for sixes, wickets and the result, with the screen optional
Choice
B, plus crown-controlled scrolling, so reading never needs a finger on a tiny screen.
Why
A fan can feel a wicket in a meeting without looking down.
Trade-off
Each event has its own vibration pattern, and patterns have to be learned. The first few alerts also show the event on screen, so the pattern and its meaning get linked.
Evidence
I left out ball-by-ball commentary and video entirely. The screen can’t carry them, and trying would have made everything else worse.
03
Car: two modes, depending on whether the car is moving
Context
The same driver wants different things at 60 km/h and in a parking lot.
Options
A — one simplified interface for everything
B — a “D” mode with key-event updates only, and a “P” mode with full commentary and the points table
Choice
B. The mode follows the car’s gear selector, so the driver never switches it, and the points table is only available in P mode.
Why
Driving stays limited to what can be heard or glanced at, without stripping the app down for the times it’s safe to use.
Trade-off
Two states to design and explain, and a driver who wants the table has to wait until they park.
Supporting choices in the car
The steering-wheel play/pause button reads out the latest score.
Voice queries cover scores and schedules.
A small dashboard score widget sits alongside navigation without interrupting it.
Alert frequency is set in the phone app, not the car, so drivers never change settings while driving.
A concept: ambient lighting turns the team’s colour on a six or a wicket.
03 / Testing and what changed
Both changes removed something.
I tested both prototypes with IPL fans.
Platform
What testers said
What I changed
Watch
Wins and losses in the points table were unnecessary and overwhelming
Removed those columns from the watch table, leaving rank, team and points
Car
Seeing every match, including upcoming ones, was distracting
The car shows only live matches
On these platforms, testing kept pointing the same way: less, and better.
04 / Outcomes
What the project produced.
2platforms designed around their own hardware, not the phone’s
3haptic patterns: a six, a wicket and the result
D / Pcar modes, following the gear selector rather than a setting
2things testing removed, one from each platform
Hi-fi Figma prototypes for both platforms, with wireframes and hardware interactions documented.
05 / What I would do differently
What I would do differently.
Test the car experience in a driving simulator,
or at least measure glance time, instead of relying on what people say.
Validate the haptic patterns
Distinct vibrations only work if people can tell them apart without looking.
Design the phone settings screen for car alerts
It carries one of the most important safety decisions in the product.
